Giovanni Bonelli opens a new chapter in Milan: the gallery moves to Corvetto and inaugurates with Mattia Moreni.
- Editorial Staff
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
After fourteen years in the Isola district, one of the most recognizable galleries on the Milanese scene changes location and looks south. We spoke with Giovanni Bonelli about the new space in Corvetto and the inaugural exhibition, which places Mattia Moreni in dialogue with artists from different generations.
In Milan, there are spaces that, over time, cease to be simple addresses and become points of reference. Giovanni Bonelli Gallery is one of them. Over the years, it has built a recognizable curatorial vision, capable of bringing together contemporary research, historical reinterpretations, and intergenerational dialogues, becoming a steady presence in the city’s artistic landscape. The gallery now opens a new chapter: it leaves its historic space on Via Lambertenghi, in the Isola district, and moves to Via Arcivescovo Romilli 20, in the Corvetto neighborhood, one of the city’s most dynamic and rapidly changing areas. To inaugurate the new space, Bonelli has chosen a manifesto exhibition: The Future Will Be Weird, a project curated by Denis Isaia that takes the figure of Mattia Moreni as its focal point and places him in dialogue with a constellation of contemporary artists. Our editorial team spoke with Giovanni Bonelli to understand the reasons behind the move, the vision driving this change, and the future perspectives ahead.
The move from Isola to Corvetto: interview with Giovanni Bonelli
After so many years in the Isola district, what prompted you to change location?
“The desire, after fourteen years, was to find a space roughly the same size as the one on Via Lambertenghi, but in a rapidly growing area, with a landmark like Fondazione Prada and other very important institutions.”
How did the encounter with this space in Corvetto come about?
“By chance. I went to see an exhibition by a curatorial collective that had rented the space for a temporary project. I fell in love with the shop windows and the flooring of the place, immediately realizing that we could extend the space into the area below, expanding its curatorial and exhibition possibilities.”
How does this change fit into the gallery’s trajectory?
“The change was necessary both for contractual reasons and out of a desire to try and embrace a new adventure, a new challenge not only for us but also for the artists we work with. A new space, structured differently, pushes both me and the artists to think about different exhibitions and to approach the gallery in a new way compared to the past.”
What were your first impressions after the opening?
“The inaugural exhibition was very well received both by industry professionals and by a large public. The presence in the neighborhood of several exhibition spaces, both private and institutional, encouraged a continuous flow of enthusiasts and curious visitors.”
What perspectives does this new chapter open up?
“The new space is perhaps more complex than the previous one, as it is spread over two floors. But this will allow us to run parallel projects at the same time. Our aim is to engage with and present the work of major 20th-century artists, both Italian and international, placing them in dialogue with artists from subsequent generations, as well as contemporary and current ones.”
The inaugural exhibition: Mattia Moreni and a “weird” future
To inaugurate the new space, the gallery has chosen an artist who is difficult to frame in conventional terms: Mattia Moreni (1920–1999), one of the most radical and nonconformist figures in twentieth-century European painting.
The Future Will Be Weird, curated by Denis Isaia, is not a traditional retrospective, but a project built on friction, echoes, and visual collisions. Mattia Moreni is placed in dialogue with artists from different generations and languages: Vedovamazzei, Nicola Samorì, Vera Portatadino, Alessandro Pessoli, Giovanni Morbin, Enrico Minguzzi, Pesce Khete, Gelitin, Silvia Dal Dosso, Cult of Magic, Pierpaolo Campanini, and Giovanni Blanco.
The title itself sets the tone of the project: the future will be strange, ambiguous, and unsettling. And it is precisely for this reason that Moreni appears strikingly relevant today.
Moreni today: sex, power, degeneration, irony
The exhibition begins with one of the most unexpected subjects in his production: the watermelon. A fruit that Moreni transforms into an erotic, political, organic, and at times grotesque symbol.
Behind the apparent irony, the theme is serious: the relationship between nature and artifice, between spontaneous growth and manipulation, between desire and control. In the fields of Romagna in the 1960s, Moreni observed the industrial cultivation of watermelons and immediately grasped its symbolic significance: the transformation of nature into product.
From there, a broader reflection unfolds on anthropological mutation, the society of the spectacle, and cultural regression, themes that today feel almost prophetic.
Contemporary dialogues between the gallery’s two floors
The new two-level space becomes an integral part of the exhibition project.
On the lower floor, the dialogue between Moreni and several contemporary artists becomes more intense. With Nicola Samorì, a fierce affinity emerges in the treatment of the body and painting as living matter. With Alessandro Pessoli, a more visionary bridge is formed, built on deformed figures and expressionist memory.
Vedovamazzei, Gelitin and Pesce Khete instead engage with the more ironic and regressive aspect of Moreni’s work, the one that moves through kitsch, the grotesque, and the infantilization of the present.
Other interventions, such as those by Cult of Magic and Silvia Dal Dosso, shift the discourse toward installation, video, and new languages, demonstrating how Moreni’s thinking can still generate unexpected forms.
A signal for Milan
The relocation of Giovanni Bonelli gallery is not just a change of address. It is also a sign of an artistic Milan that continues to redefine its own geography, shifting attention toward increasingly vibrant and receptive districts.
Corvetto, already animated by new cultural energies, thus gains an important foothold. And Bonelli inaugurates this new chapter in the most coherent way possible: by choosing an artist who is uncomfortable, free, and still capable of speaking to the present.
Because if the future really will be weird, then perhaps Mattia Moreni had already understood it a long time ago.
Visitor Information
Location: Via Arcivescovo Romilli 20, Milano Dates: April 14 - June 13, 2026 Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
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